Tips

From getting shot to forgetting about the approaching blue wall of death, there are many ways to die in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Camped below are tips and tricks to staying alive, including how to coordinate teamplay, finding cover, and movement.

Contents

Parachuting

Right after the short stay in the lobby, players are tossed aboard a plane. The very first task is figuring out where and when to leap out.

Land as fast as possible. Use the FWD key (Left Analog stick on Xbox) to dive faster. The fastest speed at which you can travel downwards is 235 km/h.

Study landing zones. Take a look at the Erangel map - if you're a decent player, aim for the moderate to high popularity areas; if you're new to the game, aim for the low popularity areas.

Wait until the plane is directly above your desired landing site.

Use ALT (Hold down RB and look around with the left analog stick on Xbox) to utilize freelook while skydiving to keep track of other players who may have leapt out near you. Track them and try to keep in mind where they land.

You don't necessarily need to deploy your chute; the game auto-deploys based on the distance of the land from the player. Keep this in mind if trying to soar over a tall structure or hill.

Once you've landed, try to make it into a building as quickly as possible for cover, weapons, and armor.

You can use S to glide for longer distances.

Movement

If you're in the open, don't stop moving.

If taking fire while in the open, run in a zig-zag pattern to make aiming more difficult for the enemy.

To check around corners, click and hold the right mouse button (LT on Xbox). Then use Q/E (Click Left/Right Analog sticks on Xbox) to swap shoulder views. This is done in third-person.

Use cover wisely. Buildings are the obvious choice for cover, but players can hide behind outcroppings and within bushes.

If you unequip your weapon (X key or hold down Y Button on Xbox), you can run slightly faster but you are more vulnerable. However, running with a pistol makes you just as fast as when you run without any weapon at all.

Close doors when entering and exiting buildings. Doors are closed by default, so leaving one open lets others know that you are either a) in the building or b) have been in the building. The latter also indicates there's likely nothing of value remaining and that you may be nearby.

When entering a building for the first time, whether the door is opened or closed, consider clearing it first before looting.

If lying in wait within a building, park yourself in the direction the door swings open. This puts the door between you and the enemy player, who then has to step into the room and into your line of fire.

Hold CTRL while walking to "sneak". Obviously this slows the player down but makes less noise.

Crouch-jump by using SPACE+C. This enables jumping through windows and jumping slightly higher.

If you've just killed another player, wait for a bit to see if your gunfire attracted anyone before moving in to loot.

When looting the body - or anything in the open - consider going prone or zig-zaging to do so.

Shrinking area

If you're new to the game, it is vital to understand that the playing area shrinks periodically. Not only that, but it does so by moving in the "blue circle" from the edges of the map. Initial damage is pretty small, but it doubles each time the circle shrinks. If players are caught outside this circle, they will eventually die. Here are the time periods to keep in mind (from first to last):

5 minutes

3 minutes 20 seconds

2 minutes 30 seconds

2 minutes

2 minutes

1 minute 30 seconds

1 minute 30 seconds

1 minute

Players can use the zone to their advantage by playing near it; this minimizes the chances that any enemies are approaching from the rear. However, players doing this need to watch its boundaries very carefully and be ready to move when it shrinks.

Red zones

In addition to the advanced blue wall of death, some areas will light up red on the map from time to time.This means it will be bombed. If you're there, get out as fast as you can, but if you can't, try running and hiding in the nearest building; if you're nearby, don't go traipsing in. Try to stick to buildings that have more than one floor, and keep to the ground floor of said building.

You can survive, but it's best not to tempt fate.

Water

You will need to come up for air. (SPACE)

Armor

Cosmetic items are cool, but they serve no functional purpose. If there's a choice, go for the armor, no matter how ugly it is.

Durability: what damage does it take to destroy the armor

Damage reduction: how much less damage does its wearer take

The three tiers of armor offer the following:

30% damage reduction; durability of 125 (helmet); 200 (vest)

40% damage reduction; durability of 150 (helmet); 220 (vest)

55% damage reduction; durability of 230 (helmet); 250 (vest)

Legs and arms don't have any available armor, though have a 50% natural damage reduction. Headshots always do 2.5x the damage of chest shots.

Weapons

You can hold the aim button (right mouse) button to hip fire a weapon, and you can press it once to aim down the sights of the gun.

When aiming, use SHIFT to hold your character's breath and obtain a small zoom (currently only works with red dot and holo optics).

Loot crates

Crates of loot are dropped into the play zone from time to time that contain higher-end equipment. They will parachute down and then mark themselves with a plume to red smoke.

If you're very close, get there quickly, loot, and move to cover.

If you're close but uncertain of success - or just want to take people out - use the crate as bait and snipe approaching enemies.

You can also let someone loot it, follow them from the immediate area of danger, then kill them to acquire the loot yourself.

If you see a crate drop in the distance, mark your map. You can use the compass at the top of your screen to align yourself with your marker.

Vehicles

Even if you're alone, you can still have fun. Try swapping into an empty seat while the car is moving to lay down some fire. (CTRL+ (1/2/3/4))

Vehicles tend to make plenty of noise, so keep in mind you may draw some unwanted attention.

Boosting with a vehicle will consume extra gas, keep in mind this does not typically affect the top speed of the vehicle. This is optimally used in inclining terrains.

To avoid damage, wait until the vehicle comes to a stop before exiting.

Against vehicles, shoot out the tires. This cripples its movement speed.

You can also use this proactively to prohibit players from finding a vehicle to use as an escape.

The M249 LMG is very efficient at destroying vehicles.

Vehicles can explode if they hit objects at a high enough speed.

Duo team

There are several strategies for ensuring survival when playing as a duo team.

Use voice chat. Things can get extremely hectic, especially towards the end of the match, and typing wastes valuable seconds.

Situational awareness. Know where your partner is at all times, especially when split up over terrain. Players can resurrect their partners.

If one partner has terrific aim, consider using the other partner as bait. Just avoid doing this when there are multiple enemies coming from different directions.

Squad play

Squads have the advantage of numbers over solo and duo players, but that doesn't necessarily mean they should rush into every situation.

Have members assigned to roles such as a scouts, snipers, and guards. This is especially important after a squad has established a base of operations.

Stay in semi-close proximity when taking a point. Clustering only helps enemy snipers, but staying too far away may mean not being able to revive an ally.

Multiple snipers can be used in a baiting strategy, forming a kill box to lure enemies in.

Don't kill your teammates. This can get a player banned if done on purpose.

Use clear, concise language to communicate with your team. This can include, but isn't limited to: how many enemies are there, how many are killed, from what cardinal direction is (whatever), are you taking fire, have you died

Use your map markers effectively to visually indicate something of interest to you and your squadmates.

Interface

Crank up the volume and wear headphones. Walking may not make much noise, but running does. You can also hear firefights and approaching vehicles.

Keybinds for healing items are 7-9 and 0.

Optimizing Performance

Getting the Unreal4 engine to perform, even on the most modern hardware is no trivial task. Here are some quick tips for maximizing your PC gaming experience.

General House Keeping:

First - Close every app you don't need explicitly to run the game! This is because your RAM and CPU usage will be largely consumed by other programs and processes. One of the best choices would be to not leave Google Chrome or any other browser open. Close it and anything else that isn't absolutely necessary.

Upgrade your drivers to the latest version from your video card manufacturer.

Upgrade your version of DirectX to the latest version.

In the properties section of the Steam client, you can right click the game in your Steam library and select "Properties" then "Set Launch Options".

Using notepad build a string with the following settings

-refresh 120

Set the bold number to the highest refresh rate your monitor and video card can support

-maxMem=7000

This controls the maximum amount of RAM to allocate to the game. For example, if you have 8GB of RAM and want to dedicate 7GB to the game, then the input you’d place after the equal sign would be 7000.

-malloc=system

This tells your operating system to decide the amount of memory to use while the game is running. Since the game is not optimized yet, allowing your system to control this will improve how the system handles the memory you've allocated in the previous option

-USEALLAVAILABLECORES

This makes sure all of your CPU cores are being used while the game is running.

-sm4

If you’re still having trouble running the game smoothly, then add this to your current Steam launch options. This will change the shader used in the game from DirectX 11 to DirectX 10. It won’t look as nice, but it may improve your frame rate.

Based on the sample hardware above, the final string would look like this:

-refresh 120 -maxMem=7000 -malloc=system -USEALLAVAILABLECORES -sm4

"In Game" options

Set these all to "Low" or "Very Low" with the exception of "View Distance" to maximize visibility.